in World News Canada Discovers Chinese Election Propaganda Promoting Leftist PM Mark Carney
by Frances Martel
A Canadian government Task Force that monitors election interference by foreign countries revealed on Monday that Chinese state-linked social media posts were amplifying messages promoting unelected leftist Prime Minister Mark Carney as a “rock star economist” and worthy adversary to President Donald Trump.
The messages were associated with a news account on the Chinese social media app WeChat called “Youli-Youmian,” which is linked to the Chinese Communist Party according to the Security and Intelligence Threats to Elections (SITE) Task Force. The SITE task force refused to categorize the posts as necessarily positive, insisting that some references to Carney were neutral, and emphasized that, in its opinion, the foreign propaganda was not materially affecting the Canadian election. It described the content only as being about Mark Carney.
The Globe and Mail newspaper described the posts as celebrating Carney for challenging Trump on his tariff policy, which has been favorable for Canada relative to many other countries. One post reportedly described Carney as a “rock star economist” while another praised him as a “tough prime minister” and shared a description of him as “the only adult in the room.” The posts were reportedly in Chinese text and targeting Chinese-Canadian voters.
“The SITE Task Force observed large spikes of coordinated inauthentic behaviour preceding the election campaign, on March 10, and again during the writ period on March 25, 2025,” the government agency said in a statement. “The SITE Task Force will be discussing this issue with Tencent, the developer of WeChat, to raise our concerns.”
SITE insisted that, “at this time, the Panel has determined that this activity is not affecting Canada’s ability to have a free and fair election. This case is contained to one platform and has not spread further, nor is it affecting Canadians’ abilities to make an informed decision about their vote.”
At a press conference on Monday, Privy Council Office official Laurie-Anne Kempton claimed the materials in question “had contrasting positive and negative narratives” but described the alleged “negative” narratives as “targeting his experience and credentials.” Prior to being appointed prime minister, Carney ran both the Bank of England and Bank of Canada and had extensive experience as a shadow adviser to Trudeau on issues such as climate alarmism and civil rights abuses during the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic.